The Bible Study Podcast, episode 683. Today, the Bible Study podcast continues the study of the book of Genesis with chapter 38.

Welcome to the Bible Study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. We left our hero Joseph, who is going to be the focus of the most of the rest of this book in bondage in Egypt. And we're going to leave him there for one more chapter as we deal with an odd story about Judah and Tamar. At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man

of Adulam named Harah. There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her

and made love to her. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son who was named heir. She conceived again

and gave birth to a son and named him Onan.

She gave birth to still another son and named him Shila. It was at Keseb that she gave birth to him.

Judah got a wife for Err his firstborn and her name was Tamar. But Er, Judas firstborn, was wicked

in the Lord's sight, so the Lord put him to death.

Then Judas said to Onan, sleep with your brother's wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.

But Onan knew that the child would not be his, so whenever he slept with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground

to keep from providing offspring for his brother. What he did was wicked in the Lord's sight, so the

Lord put him to death also. Judah then said to his daughter-in-law, Tamar, live as a widow in your

father's household until my son, Shila grows up, "'for he thought he may die too just like his brothers.

"'So Tamar went to live in her father's household.

"'After a long time Judah's wife, the daughter of Shua, died.

"'Then Judah had recovered from his grief.

"'He went up to Timna, to the men who were shearing his sheep,

"'and his friend Hurrah, the Adulamite, went with him.

When Tamar was told your father-in-law is on his way to Timna to shear his sheep, she took off her

widow's clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to

Inaim, which is the road to Timna,

for she saw that though Sheila had now grown up, she had not been given to him as a wife.

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